Star Wars: Foundations
by Zachthefish
Summary: Mysterious events are plaguing the capital and it's up to Daala to find out who's behind them. Is it the Sith?
1. Chapter 1: Explosive Beginnings

A loud explosion rocked the foundations of the a tall skyscraper styled building. The people within the building began to scream as the building rocked back and forth as though it were mounted on the back of a large slowly moving turtle. The inhabitants of the building fought to stay upright as the building began to sway even faster and harder.

"What's going on?" asked one of the dwellers of the building.

"We're all going to die!" shouted another.

"The door!" cried a third as she ran to the door and tugged upon it. "It's locked from the outside! What are we to do?!" she said dropping to her knees in defeat.

The sound of humming suddenly came to life on the other side of the door as it grew red with heat. The woman scurried away from it on all fours as fast as she could go.

"What's that?" asked a man.

A moment later his question was answered as the door fell away and a tall hooded figure filled the frame of the door. A light was lit in his hand and the people sighed in relief.

"The Jedi they've come to rescue us!" cried the woman on the floor as she rushed to her feet.

The woman ran towards the hooded figure as the others watched. But the moment she was in front of him she stopped and stepped back slowly clutching her chest.

"I was wrong." she said before crumpling to the ground.

A man looked at her long enough to see the round hole where her hand had been with a piece of metal pole protruding out of it and looked up to the figure in the doorway. "You! You kill….." his words were cut off by the sound of him choking. A moment later the figure extinguished the lightsaber in his hand and clipped it to his belt.

The man who had been choking dropped to the ground as the others began to scream and run where ever they could. The figure raised his hands and the ceiling began to crack as pieces of it began to fall from the cracks. The room was filled with screams as the larger chunks fell from their upright positions onto the terrified civilians.

One by one they all perished and the figure, satisfied that he had gotten them all turned and leapt out of the building before it fell to the lower regions of Coruscant.

Galactic Alliance Chief of state Natasi Daala clicked on her holoscreen to catch the morning news reports before heading into her office. What she saw was chaos as a woman humanoid reporter was standing on the ledge of a building. What Daala saw behind her caught her as odd. There was a large gap in the cityscape that didn't look like it should be there. She turned up the volume to listen to the commentary.

"It appears that the building has fallen into the lower sections of the planet following an explosion in the late night hours.

Emergency workers are heading to the lower levels accompanied by several Jedi to search for any survivors and to find the cause of all of this."

Daala turned down the volume so she could think before the scene changed on the screen. She rubbed her face and rushed to her feet after turning off the holoscreen and heading out the door.

Once Natasi Daala reached her office she was already being approached by reporters and civilians alike asking her question after question. She waved them off as she headed inside and met with Wynn Dorvan her personal assistant.

"Why didn't you tell me what was going on?" Daala scolded taking Dorvan by the collar.

"I tried calling you but you didn't answer." Wynn said.

"I was asleep I didn't get any messages. What's going on Wynn?" Daala said.

"A few hours ago there was an explosion a few kilometers from here the building that was missing in the newsvid is what exploded, and it fell miraculously missing the buildings around it."  
Wynn explained. "We don't know much else yet, our men are waiting for you to give them the go ahead to go down and investigate."

"This city is old, there's no telling what could have caused it, we're not sending a bunch of our men, send a couple Jedi." Daala said.  
"We had planned on sending a Jedi escort." Wynn said.

"Just send a couple of Jedi they're efficient enough to get the job done. For all we know it was just an old building in disrepair." Daala said taking her seat. "If not, no sense risking our men's lives down there." she muttered.

"Master Hamner." called a young man.

"Yes?" Kent Hamner answered.

"I've received word from Chief of State Daala. She wishes an audience with you." the young Jedi said.

"I'll take it in my office thank you." Hamner said.

The young man left master Hamner's side as Kent made his way to his office. Once he arrived there he pressed the button on his com and a 3 dimension figure of Daala's head appeared on Kent's desk.

"Chief of State Daala, to what do I owe the honor of this call?" Kent said in greeting.

"Cut the sarcasm Kent. I need two or three of your Jedi to investigate the building explosion. Can you spare any?" she asked shortly.

"Well, I had intended to send a few as escorts but they could do the job as well I'm sure. Why the change?" he asked.

"I just don't think we'll need a whole lot of people. I doubt anyone survived and I believe it may have just been the failure of the old building." Daala said.

"My senses tell me otherwise, but we'll let you know if we find anything out." Kent said.

"Thank you." Daala said through much difficulty.

"And I'll send four for good measure." He added.

Daala nodded and cut the transmission.

Kent shook his head in disbelief. "I just wish Master Skywalker were here. I have a bad feeling about this." he said standing up and heading out of his office.

The under city was dark and cold as four Jedi knights walked upon the planets surface. A place one knight hadn't been to since she was a toddler.

"I don't like this place. Haven't been here in years." one knight said.

"You've been here before Jedi Solo?" another asked.

"Yes, once my brother Jacen and I ventured down here as kids. Our parents were furious." Jaina said.

"I could imagine." the other knight replied. "It's so dark." he said lighting a glow stick.

"I agree." Jaina responded lighting one of her own. The other two lit theirs as well as they made their way to the rubble of the fallen building.

"Do you sense that?" one man asked.

"I do. Something happened here that wasn't from an old building failure. Look." Jaina responded as she knelt down picking up a charred canister. She sniffed it and stood up holding it in her hand. "This was done deliberately." she said tossing the canister to one of her fellows.

"Indeed. This appears to be part of an explosive device." he said catching it in his hand.

"Right at the base of the building which means that whoever caused it was down here. I can't sense them though, they must have left after the explosion."

At the last word of Jaina's sentence the sound of another explosion filled the air. The jedi braced themselves with the force and looked around for it's source. The ground shook slightly below them.

"That sounded pretty far off." Jaina said. "Let's go maybe we could save someone." she said and darted off using the force to quicken her pace.

Using the force to guide them they quickly found the source of the explosion. A gaping hole rest in the bottom of another building a kilometer away from the original bomb site. The building was rocking dangerously.

"I'm going to try and brace it with the force, one of you get on the other side and help while the other two go up and try to rescue all that you can." Jaina instructed.

Without a word the other three split up two rushing into the building as the other made his way around to the other side. Jaina focused as much of the force as she could on stabilizing the building with the help of the other Jedi knight on the other side.

Inside the two jedi knights made their way through the buildings lower levels which were empty as they had expected. The electricity was out so they rushed quickly up several flights of emergency stairs searching the force for the life forms inside the building. Another explosion rocked the building as they braced themselves just in time to avoid falling down the stairs.

"Another one?" one knight said.

"Keep going." the other replied.

The two darted off up the stairs as quickly as they dared. Several flights of stairs later they found a floor where the second explosion had hit. Several people lay on the ground groaning in pain.

"How are we supposed to get them to safety? There's too many of them." one knight asked.

"Use the force to levitate them to the next building through the window." he said using the force to open the windows in both buildings.

"Right." he started levitating the wounded through the window.

Onlookers had come to the open window of the next building. They began pulling the wounded in and placing them gently on the ground.

"Inform the other occupants of your building to open their windows and wait for us to send them some more people. Hurry!" one knight called.

"Yes sir!" one onlooker said rushing out of sight.

"Come on, lets head up another level." the knight told his partner.

One level at a time the two knights began rescuing the occupants of the building. As they reached the fourth floor another explosion sounded below them and the building began to teeter even more swiftly. They knew that the two jedi below wouldn't be able to hold it much longer. They picked up speed quickly now with more help from neighboring buildings sending speeders to windows they were able to evacuate the remainder of the building.  
The knights climbed aboard one of the speeders and were taken down to the lower levels of the city to meet the other two Jedi. Jaina sighed in relief as they joined her and the other jedi to safely lower the collapsing building. The four of them were able to bring it down without hitting any other buildings or speeders.  
Jaina and the other knight that had been helping her dropped to the ground with fatigue. The two others ran to their sides and saw that they were both covered in sweat.

"We got them out Jedi Solo. There were some injured, but they're in the next building." he told her.

"Good work." she panted.

"You there, can you bring my companions and I to the temple?" the knight asked the speeder owner.

"Sure thing Mr. Jedi." the man responded.

The knights lifted the compatriots and helped them to board the speeder. Jaina and the other exhausted knight settled down in an empty seat as the speeder lifted off the ground heading towards the surface. Jaina slipped into a meditative trance as they flew over the city towards the Jedi temple.

Once they arrived Jaina was rested enough to help herself out of the speeder. The four knights thanked their ride and headed inside to report to Master Hamner. They made their way to his office and chimed him when they arrived. A moment later the door slid open and they entered. The two who had entered the building were covered in debris dust and were sweating as well.

"I see you've all returned safely. I've heard there was another explosion." Master Hamner greeted.

"Yes, Master Hamner. We were able to save some people but some were already dead when we got inside." the oldest knight said.

"You did what you could. Where are the survivors?" Hamner asked.

"I've asked the building next doors occupants to take them to the local medical clinic." the knight answered.

"Very good Jedi Gailin." Master Hamner said. "What have you all discovered?" he inquired.

"The buildings were sabotaged. The culprit was nowhere to be found which leaves me to believe that the explosives were set to timers." Jaina answered.

"Hmm. Why someone would do this is beyond me. These are innocent civilians." Hamner said.

Jaina shrugged. "I don't know sir. Whoever's behind it all must have an agenda." she said.

"Indeed. Jedi Solo, I'd like for you to investigate this matter, but I have one more question. The explosions where did they start  
from?" He asked.

"At the base of the buildings meaning the culprit was on the surface of the planet." Jaina answered.

The other Jedi knight stepped forward and placed the cylinder they found at the first site on Hamner's desk. "Jedi Solo found this at the first bomb site." Jedi Gailin said.

Master Hamner picked up the cylinder and held it in his hand examining it closely. The top of it was spread out like the roots of a tree and it was charred black as coal. "I see. It appears that this was the timer." he said running his finger over a small black melted part of the metal. "This appears to have been paristeal at one point."

Jaina came to his side and looked at it. "A timer display?" she asked.

Kent nodded. "Apparently. For all we know the culprit could be far off the planet by now and we could be looking at several more of these explosions. How many hours passed between the two?" he asked no one in particular.

Jaina glanced down at her chrono. "Exactly 6 hours." she answered.

"Which means we have less then that to find the next bomb." Hamner said. "You four go clean yourselves up, I'm going to contact the Chief of State. We'll need some more bodies on this one." he said.

"Yes sir." the four knights said before departing.

"Daala."

"It's worse then we thought Chief of State. My four Jedi Knights have returned with this." Hamner said holding up the charred cylinder. "It would appear that this was the work of a terrorist. We'll need your help. We believe that the culprit has fled but there's a possibility, and a high one that there are more bombs set on timers. We have approximately," he glanced at his chrono. "Five hours to find the next bomb." Hamner explained.

"I see. I'll send a bomb squad down to the surface if you can spare a few jedi to assist us." Daala said.

"I'll send all that I can spare. We have to work together if we're going to save this place." Hamner said.

"For once, I agree. Daala out." with that the transmission ended.

Hamner rubbed his eyes and activated his Jedi comlink. "Attention all available Jedi. I need any able bodied Jedi in the temple to meet in the fountain room. This is of utmost importance. Hamner out." he said clicking the com off. "May the force help us all." he said to himself before standing up and heading to the fountain room to meet the others.

Within half an hour a large majority of the G.A.G. and Jedi were scattered along the surface of the Capital planet of the Galactic Alliance. They were joined also by Head of State Jagged Fel and the Solos Han and Leia as well.

They combed the city using tools and the force to find any bombs that may exist. They had found several that had longer timers on them and after several hours still had not found the one that was set to explode in another hour. They were now searching frantically and seemed to be getting no closer to finding it. The clock ticked down when suddenly the jedi sensed a danger in the force.

"It's coming from the Chief of State's building!" cried Jaina to her mother.

"We must warn Daala!" Leia said.

Leia activated her data pad and dialed up the number to Daala's office as fast as she could.

"Daala." answered the hologram.

"Natasi, you have to evacuate the building. You have approximately fifteen minutes to clear it. We can't get there in time." Leia said frantically.

"Understood." Daala cut the transmission and her hologram disappeared.

"I hope she makes it in time." Leia said under her breath.

"Why, we could easily replace her." Han smarted off with a slight grin.

Leia threw him a look that could scold metal and he threw up his hands in surrender. "Really? Would anyone miss her?" he said.

"Han!" Leia scolded.

Han shrugged but didn't say anything else.

Hamner contacted the other Jedi informing them to steer clear of the target building. He instructed a group of men with the fastest speeders to head there to rescue Daala and they shot off into the sky on his orders.

"I hope they make it." Hamner said as Leia approached him.

"This could mean an alliance finally if she does make it." Leia said to him.

"Maybe. One can only hope." he responded.

"I say we should've let her be blown to bits. Would save us all a lot of trouble." Han said approaching beside Leia.

Leia socked him on the arm in response. "Ow! I was only kidding sweetheart." he said this time lacking the sarcasm in his voice.

"All the same you should be careful what you say Han." Leia scolded.

"All right, all right." Han grumbled.

Daala was running to her landing pad not far from her office when a speeder approached her already running. Wynn Dorvan was right behind her panting and holding his pocket.

"Chief of State, Master Hamner sent us to get you away from here." one man said.

Daala noticed that the man was a Jedi and didn't care at the time. Her speeder wasn't even running and it could easily be replaced. Her and Dorvan climbed aboard the speeder and it shot off. Daala looked behind her to see several other speeders shooting off filled with the other occupants of the building she had just left. A few moments later several loud explosions began to rise from the deepest part of the building and rapidly rose to the office levels. It was nothing like the other explosions, these ones were chained so closely together that without the warning there would have been no escaping it at all. The building crumbled and fell into the depths it had once occupied.

THE JEDI TEMPLE ONE HOUR LATER

"It would appear that the culprit's intention was to take out the Chief of State and the entire staff employed in her building." Jagged Fel explained to the congregation in front of him.

"What a subtle way to take someone out." Han muttered his voice full of sarcasm once more.

"It was the safest way to do it. The question is how did the culprit get past security to deploy the explosives without detection." Hamner added.

"Also, why go through the trouble of the other buildings being bombed? I think they were trying to take down Coruscant altogether." Leia said.

"Whoever it was had to have a lot of free time on there hands and be very skilled in order to do so without detection. There wasn't even a glimmer of warning in the force of the first explosion." Hamner added.

"How many bombs in total were found?" Daala asked.

"Nearly one hundred from all the groups. Strategically placed I must add." one of the bomb techs answered.

"Why do you say that?" Daala asked.

"If they had all gone off the rest of the buildings would have taken down there surrounding buildings. Like a domino effect." he explained.

"The first two buildings didn't do that." Daala countered.

"No, but we think they were just a warning." the tech responded.

"Of what?" Han asked.

"Imminent doom." the tech said.

"Well, whoever it was has failed haven't they." Han said. "So, now what?"

"I have my experts examining the bombs that have been defused.  
We'll have to wait to get their results." the tech answered.

"Until then, Daala, you are more then welcome to stay here under our protection if you like. I will send some jedi in search of this culprit and bring them to justice." Hamner said.

"Thank you Master Hamner." Daala said with a nod.

"Of course." Hamner said.

They all stood and departed from the room Daala followed Master Hamner who took her to an unoccupied dorm. "You can stay here Daala. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you something?" he said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Can I contact Master Skywalker and ask him to aid us in the search?" he said.

Daala sighed and stood in silence for a minute clearly thinking it over. "As long as his search doesn't lead him to violate his exile." she finally said.

Kent nodded. "Of course." he replied.

With a nod he handed her a card to access the room and left her standing there. Daala shook her head and entered the room alone.

"What? How could that have happened on a planet full of Jedi?" Luke Skywalker's image said.

"We don't know, but we were able to stop most of the explosions from happening and saved Chief of State Daala." Hamner replied.

"And you all believe the culprit to have left the planet?" Luke asked.

"Yes."

"All right. I'll search for something but without knowing anything about them it's all up to the force now." Luke answered.

"We're in the same boat here Luke." Hamner answered.

"Very well. May the Force be with you." Luke said.

"May the force be with you too Luke." Hamner replied.


	2. Chapter 2

[b]Chapter 2: The search.[/b]

Over the next few weeks the survivors of the Coruscant attack searched the planet wide city for any signs of leads or anything that could lead to the capture of the terrorist. Surveillance teams frantically searched security recordings of all bombsites finding only one odd similarity between them all.

At certain intervals in certain buildings the cameras would suddenly blink out as though they had stopped working. The leader of security for the G.A.G. building brought the tapes to Jagged Fel to show him what they had found.

"Apparently they had these things planted years ago, we've searched over years worth of footage not finding anything. We were able to narrow down the searches by checking only the locations where the bombs were found but we still had to track back years just to find even the most minute details." he explained to the Head of State.

"What did you find then Pollax?" Jagged asked.

"Only these sir, they're not even solid leads, but it's all we have." he said sliding the holodisc into the projector.

Jagged watched as Pollax played the recordings. "Have a look here at the dates." he said pointing to the bottom of the projections.

"That was years ago!" Jagged said. "How does that help?" Jagged asked.

"Watch." Pollax said as he played one recording.

Jagged watched as a shadow crossed the wall across from the camera. A moment later the picture shook slightly then went dark for several minutes before cutting back on. Several other cameras in the same area at minutes apart did the same thing.

"So someone knew where all the cameras were had knew how to disable them." Jagged said.

The tech nodded. "Yes sir. Which means that if this was our guy, or girl, they could be way out of the GA by now.

The tech nodded in disappointment and slumped down into a chair. "We've uncovered several of videos like this spanning over a few years time. Whoever it was took their time and were probably originally targeting The Emperor." the tech said.

"Most likely. A day late and a dollar short apparently." the tech said.

"There's no guarantee that the culprit is even still alive. If they are, they'd have to be older then my own parents. Possibly even my grandparents." Jagged said.

"Yeah. Right again sir." the tech agreed.

"All right. You found nothing else more recently then?" Jagged asked.

"No sir. Nothing this is the only lead we have." he answered.

"Very well. Thank you." Jagged said and with a nod dismissed the man.

"Whoever it was, he or she was very good, but a little late don't you think."

"I agree, maybe they thought the Emperor would be in power longer then he was and wanted to make sure he was safely away before they went off."

"Either that or they just miscalculated the timers." Daala said.  
Jagged shrugged. "There's no telling really.

"Well, either way our search has been in vain then. If they were fully matured by the time those bombs were set there's no way they could still be young enough to even worry about now." Daala said.

"You're right." Jagged said.

"I think we're safe now." Daala added.

"Yeah." Jagged agreed.

"I'll inform the Jedi Grandmaster. Then I'll return to my home quarters." Daala said.

"Very well." Jagged said, his eyes staring at a point past Daala's shoulders.

Daala noticing his distraction turned to see what he was looking at. Just as she did she saw a familiar form turn a corner. "She was right to end it Jagged. It wasn't meant to be." Daala said placing a hand on Jagged's shoulder.

"I know." Jagged said taking a ragged breath. "Take care of yourself Natasi." He said before departing in the opposite direction.

"You too." Daala said at his retreating back.

She headed off towards Master Hamner's office to inform him of what had been found. After a quick meeting with him he agreed that he hadn't sensed any other danger and allowed her to return home.

"So you're saying all of this was planned years ago?"

"Yeah. According to what has been found unless the culprit can make himself invisible to heat sensitivity as well." Hamner said.

"You ran thermal scans on the cameras recordings too?" Luke asked.

Hamner's holo nodded. "Indeed." Hamner said.

"Very well. I hadn't found anything around here either but if what you say is true that would explain it all." Luke replied.

"That's what I thought as well." Hamner said.

"All right, thanks for letting me know." Luke replied.

"Of course. May the force be with you Luke." Hamner said.

"May the force be with you Kent." Luke responded before shutting of his transmission.

"Doesn't that sound a little odd to you dad?" Ben asked his father.

"It sounds very odd to me. If someone wanted to strike a pre-emptive attack on what would've been imperial city, why not just do it a few years from when they set up the cameras. Why so many decades later." Luke said.

"Good question dad. Maybe it was someone who could see the future and knew Daala would be there this year." Ben said.

"I doubt that Ben unless it were a jedi and no Jedi were on Coruscant at that time." Luke said.

"That we know of anyway." Ben added.

"The emperor would have sensed them." Luke said.

"Not if they were hidden at the surface of the planet." Ben said.

"Yes, he could sense a long distance away Ben. He was very powerful." Luke explained.

"Wow. Then I don't know what else it could be." Ben said.

"Me either and that's what worries me." Luke muttered.

"So you're not going to stop the search then?" Ben asked.

"No, I have a feeling there's more to this then we've been led to believe son." Luke said.

"So do I, and it's a bad feeling." Ben said.

"I agree Ben." Luke said. "We must be cautious." Luke added.


End file.
